Israeli politicians and more than 370,000 Britons urged their
governments on Wednesday to bar Donald Trump from their countries after
the Republican presidential front-runner said Muslims should be denied
entry into the United States.

The hijacking of the Pakistani airliner last fortnight by members of the dissident Pakistani 'Al Zullikar' group brought to a climax several weeks of anti-government activity, the most serious threat yet to General Zia-ul-Haq's nearly four-year-old military rule.

Call it a game of merry-go-round, reverse conversion, or mass proselytisation. Whatever its name, it is becoming increasingly clear that the conversion bug that hit the headlines early last year when Harijans from Tamil Nadu embraced Islam is here to stay.

An edict from Syedna Mohammed Burhanuddin, the 76-year-old head of the one-million-strong Dawoodi Bohra sect, has sent ripples of anxiety through the tightly-knit Shia Muslim community spread throughout the world.

The 400-year-old city, once ruled by the Qutb Shahi and Asaf Jahi line of kings, today finds itself trapped between two cultures - between the old laid-back Hyderabadi ethos and the mounting pressures of a fast growing metropolis.

Kuwait was liberated exactly a year ago. Since then the three countries directly affected by the war have witnessed immense change. Iraq has rebuilt its infrastructure at a stupendous pace even as its children starve. It could be challenging the West again. Kuwait has forgotten the trauma and the lessons of war, and is back to being a society of megaspenders. The Israelis are seeing their vulnerabilities in the post-Gulf War world order where even allies are pressurising them to concede territory to the Arabs.